Editor’s Note: Derek Simon recently joined the VegasInsider.com horse racing stable of experts. His analysis and winning selections can be purchased daily. Click to win!
Simon Says …
Let me begin this weekly column by introducing myself: My name is Derek Simon and I’m … a horse racing fan.
Yes, it does have that support group-type connotation these days, doesn’t it?
Such is the way the Sport of Kings has been (mis)managed that the No. 1 spectator sport in the world just 50 years ago is now an oddity, buried deep on the “other” pages of all but a select few Web sites.
Luckily, VegasInsider.com is one of those sites.
I first became addicted to the thunder of falling hooves back in the late ‘70s at the now-defunct Longacres racetrack in Renton, Washington.
I learned to handicap from Andrew Beyer, Steve Davidowitz, James Quinn, Tom Brohamer, Mark Cramer, and particularly William Quirin — but I have been dismayed that few new faces have populated the game since those legends first appeared on the scene nearly 40 years ago.
Sadly, not a whole lot of new ideas have emerged since that time either. I still hear about track bias, speed figures, trip handicapping and trainer intentions as though they are novel concepts. Perhaps, for those who are very selective, such ideas may still produce a black balance sheet at the end of the year, but I sincerely doubt that many players are financing trips to Cancun because they spotted a superior “figure horse” that everybody else missed.
The truth is today’s betting crowd is more sophisticated than ever, precisely because there is so much more good information available today. As most non-racing fans can attest to, reading the Daily Racing Form can be akin to deciphering hieroglyphics — written backwards, in code.
My aim here at VegasInsider.com is to help make the game easier to understand and more fun by presenting different and unique perspectives on handicapping and betting, so that, hopefully, you can earn while you learn some new approaches.
Over the next few weeks and months, I will explain my Win Factor ratings — what they mean and, to a certain extent, how they are derived — along with the early and late speed rations that I use to help determine the top contenders in a given race, as well as to spot emerging talent.
While I was a co-host of the “Thoroughbred Connection,” an Internet radio show once sponsored by TVG and carried by World Talk Radio, I used these techniques to produce a 25.6% ROI from 307 free on-the-air selections (limited to the top stakes races of the weekend).
That is a record I am very proud of and one that I am confident can be duplicated here.
Races to Watch this Weekend: Ginger Punch, the winner of the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, makes her 2008 debut as the only Grade I winner in the Sunshine Millions Distaff. The Sunshine Millions series of races, contested annually at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita, matches California- and Florida-bred steeds in a variety of different races — kind of like an East vs. West Breeders’ Cup. Ginger Punch figures to be heavily favored, so you might want to watch the odds on Curiously Sweet, a 4-year-old filly out of Mud Route, who has posted some impressive Speed Rations while competing against weaker in California.
